Demon Chat

What is IRC?

IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat. IRC is a system of connecting servers across the Internet such that people all around the world can connect to their nearest server and engage in real-time text conversations. IRC servers are organized into IRC networks - users on one server can talk to users on another server on the same IRC network; each IRC network has common channels; each network allows only one person to use a particular nickname at one time because the nicknames serve as unique identifiers.

There are several independent IRC networks such as Efnet, IRCnet, Undernet, Overnet and DALnet. The different IRC networks do not communicate with each other - each may have channels with the same name (such as #gb) but there is no connection between channels of the same name on different networks. The same nickname may be in use at the same time on each of the IRC networks.

How do I access IRC?

Demon currently operate two servers, one on IRCnet at:

ircnet.demon.co.uk

on the standard port 6667 as well as 6665, 6666, 6668 and 6669 - and one on EFnet at:

efnet.demon.co.uk

on ports 6665-6669.

If you have an IRC client and wish to chat on IRCnet or EFnet you can set it to use the ports above, but we recommend customers avoid port 6667 for faster access. See the various files on ftp.demon.co.uk in directory /pub/doc/irc/ for more information.

Due to security issues, it is not possible at the present time to use the telnettable IRC client provided by us. We apologise for this inconvenience and hope to have this service operational again soon.

Where do I get client software?

If you want to get a client, there are many available. It is suggested that you download a couple to try out and see which best suits you. Our FTP site provides clients to download for various platforms:

Windows 3.x, 95, 98 and NT

mIRC 16 and 32-bit versions.
PIRCH
ws-IRC
ircII
ircIIwin

Macintosh

Unix

ircII

Linux

ircII

Archimedes

Amiga

AmIRC WWW site.

Atari ST

Unsupported environment?

You should note that IRC is an unsupervised medium and not intended for children.

If while using our IRC service you become concerned that a child is at risk, please report the matter via the Virtual Global Taskforce website at http://www.virtualglobaltaskforce.com or (if it requires urgent attention) to your local police station.

If you discover illegal images of children are available then you should report this to the Internet Watch Foundation via http://www.iwf.org.uk.

Other sources of information

Documents by FTP

Various documents about IRC from our FTP server, including a tutorial.

The IRC RFC

A description of the IRC protocol.

NB: this is an unsupported service.